20th May 12 
BROADCASTING TALKS . . . members of the South of Scotland Alliance local television working group met in Annan on Monday. The meeting was hosted by DNG Media at the Annandale Observer Offices and was chaired by Alasdair Hutton, convenor of Scottish Borders Council. Among those at the meeting were Dumfries and Galloway council chief executive Gavin Stevenson, Ian Fisher, who runs Brampton-based independent production company Creative Imagineers, Eaglesfield-based film-maker John Wallace, Dr Dave Rushton of the Institute of Local Television and Brian Keating of URTV, seen here demonstrating his online TV service. Back, left to right: Mairi Henderson, Scottish Enterprise; Ian Fisher; Dr Dave Rushton; Susan Neal, Councillor Doug Snell, both Dumfries and Galloway Council and John Wallace. Front: Brian Keating; David Byers, Scottish Enterprise; Alasdair Hutton and Gavin Stevenson
- Local TV plans on hold
Friday 23rd December 2011 - STV switch move blasted
Sunday 11th September 2011 - Culture Secretary lobbied
Saturday 10th September 2011
Local TV campaign stepped-up
A CALL has been made for the public to voice demand for a new local TV service in the south of Scotland.
As a Scottish Government consultation on possible locations for local services draws to a close, members of the South of Scotland Local TV Working Group are keen for potential viewers in the area to make their voices heard.
Working group chairman Councillor Alasdair Hutton, convenor of Scottish Borders Council, said: “The Government is now talking about local television, but they don’t seem to be talking about local television in this area.”
He added: “The worry is that this is the very area that needs local television, but it just doesn’t fit the models that have been created.”
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is currently running a consultation which identifies 65 towns and cities where licences might be granted for local TV delivered via digital terrestrial broadcasts.
Its statement said, ‘In total, if all locations supported a local TV service, over 60 per cent of the population would be covered’.
But with Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders set to be left in the cold, the working group members gathered at DNG Media in Annan to plan their own response, urging support.
And Councillor Hutton said: “We will be telling the UK Government that we are not satisfied that they have not included the south of Scotland -- they have completely excluded and included only part of Dumfries and Galloway; we’re not satisfied with that.
“We think that the public could easily tell DCMS that this is something that they would like, that they do appreciate local news. The BBC has consistently ignored the south of Scotland, and ITV has given us crumbs from a table littered with news from other places.”
In addition to digital terrestrial broadcasts, the working group have also been exploring the options of internet protocol television -- the latter perhaps dependent on the development of a £120 million superfast broadband project in the south of Scotland.
To read the consultation document, and to contribute to the process before the closing date of September 23, visit http://www.culture.gov.uk/consultations/8298.aspx
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